“If I believe what we heard, the iPhone 5 will be released on October 15,” Richard stated.

Now it remains unclear if Richard’s statement is merely a reflection of the general Apple rumor mill or if it perhaps is the result of inside information he, as CEO of a large cell carrier, is likely privy to.

Richard, though, has historically been quite open to discussing matters which we imagine Apple would prefer him to keep quiet about. For instance, Richard this past May relayed during an interview with the WSJ that Apple was working to develop smaller SIM cards and was even contemplating a smartphone without any SIM card at all. Richard, though, claims that a number of carriers told Apple that that setup wouldn’t fly with them.

During the same interview, Richard also claimed that the iPhone 5 would be thinner, something which leaked iPhone 5 case schematics and moldings seem to confirm. But the latest buzz is that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will sport the same form factor as the iPhone 4.

Yesterday, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that Apple is planning to send a golden master of iOS 5 to overseas assemblers in late September. Factoring in the time for assemblers to install the OS on Apple’s new fleet of smartphones and shipping schedules, Kuo anticipates the iPhone 5 to hit stores by mid-October at the latest.